


Dance with Wolves

by NatShinigami



Series: Strangers in the Night [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Fluff, Pack Dynamics, Post-HYDRA Reveal, Supernatural Elements, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-10-17 13:13:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10594740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatShinigami/pseuds/NatShinigami
Summary: To the world, Karen is a simple but succesfull business-woman. To the Underworld, she is a force to be reckoned with and a role model for modern werewolves.But things go askew when she confuses the Winter Soldier with a supernatural being and her world starts to pour itself into that of humans. Diverges from cannon after CA:TWS.





	1. Of Looners and Packs

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my fist work being published here in AO3, though I've been writting fanfiction for a while.  
> I've always thought there wasn't many incursions in the supernatural in this fandom and so I decided to change that. I really hope you like it.  
> I plan to update every Friday, partials and finals weeks excluded - and I will tell the chapter before that.  
> Disclaimer: The Avengers, Bucky and the rest are propierty of Marvel and I'm just playing with them; the OCs, the Subworld and the plot however, are entirely a fruit of my beautifully deranged mind.  
> Without further ado this is what you came for: the story.

### Full moon night, April 14th 2014

  
She was running, not bothering with silence.

This was her territory, _her place_ , and she would never fear anything here. In fact, anyone trespassing should be afraid, for she would bear no kindness for those who disturb her peace.

That was… nice in theory. Had worked pretty well for the almost ten years since she had reclaimed this part of Rhode Island as her own – killing the leaders of the local vampire nest, fought the local alpha for her frontiers and struck a deal with the local fae after spilling their blood. But that didn’t change the fact that she was a wolf, and that wolves run in packs. A pack, she didn’t had.

Her pace slowed to a trot, then to a walk and the stopped to sniff.

There was something in the air tonight, something that screamed at her instincts and charged the atmosphere with an electricity-like feeling. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but her senses told her something was about to happen, something that would affect her one way or another…

And then she smelled prey and brushed her human preoccupations away from her mind. This night was for her, to revel on being the strongest predator and the fiercest beast created by nature. True, mankind had long ago found ways to make themselves stronger – you just had to look at the actors of the Battle of New York to see that –, but her strength was something unaltered, untouched, pure as spring water.

With a small jump she resumed her hunt, this time being as silent as a shadow. The wild boar would be the perfect ending for this full moon. Something at the borders of her perception tickled. Those senses that were neither wolf nor human tingled one second before turning dormant once again.

And the next thing she knew was that another wolf had hit her heavily on the side and was in for a fight.

Adrenaline rushed through her veins and her senses turned even sharper, smell relying her the details of the opponent. Male, on the dominant side of the spectrum, healthy and _oh-so-damn-young!_ Barely a pup fresh from the Change, without an idea of how to use his senses nor control over his beast. She could see that last one clear in the wild amber eyes of the white beast. The emotion subdued while the human took over once again, to decide what to do. She could kill him and cut it clean, it was the easy choice to make because if she subdued him she would have to take responsibility.

He jumped her again and while the human receded and the decision was made she thought of how strange it was for both of her sides to agree in something: loneliness had gone a long way if she was willing to put at risk everything she had for another being. She rolled to the side, avoiding his jump and following herself. His body was heavier but running on instinct, and it was relatively easy to make him fall. He realized her intentions when she made him roll on his back. He trashed and bit and starched her forepaws and belly, but her changing fur buffed the hits.

He wasn’t giving up, and she – like every werewolf ever – had a short fuse. A fast movement and his neck was between her fangs, his soft underbelly under her powerful right paw and a growl was coming steadily out of her throat. The male was paralyzed but still tense, still fighting in some way. A simple shift in tension put an end to that, her fangs not drawing blood but compressing his trachea while her claws scratched his skin.

A soft whine and his body going limp was the answer she had been expecting, and as such she put her paw on the ground to the side and nuzzled his neck, giving him a temporary scent-mark before backing away and sitting a few meters to the side.

He stood on trembling legs, fear and admiration on his gaze, far more human than before. She made him a sing to stay there, to wait for her while she went hunting. He tried to follow her a few times, whining with fear of others and of himself, but she knew that with one so young tagging along hunting would be a nightmare.

She went, she killed and she came back in less than half an hour with her wild boar on tow. The male wolf looked with desperate eyes and tried to get a bite before she put him back on his place. She ate her part keeping her eyes on him, evaluating just how much he could eat before getting sick. He wasn’t that skinny, but the line of his shoulders was more pronunciated than what it should be, and his fur hadn’t started to change from his winter coat yet. She finally backed down and allowed him to eat.

Despite her easy stance he kept throwing glances at her and hiding his tail between his legs at the first shift of her muscles. What had they done to this guy? She advanced and pulled him away from the carcass once she judged he’d had enough; he tried to fight her halfheartedly, but surrendered at last.

Next she guided him to a small creek nearby before starting her trek back home. She owned a medium house an hour away from Providence with a giant garden, a nice place that had she had a pack of her own would have made a great safe house. There she had prepped a rustic den to sleep her full moon nights in and it would made a good place to start teaching this man about the good side of being a wolf. Like sleeping in a pack heap.

They finally made it to her property and entered the only part of her territory she owned legally through a special tunnel that went under the fence. She made a note to make it wider, the male had had a hard time going through it and the fit would only be tighter when he regained some weight. Once inside her safe haven she guided him at soft pace to the cave between some trees’ roots near the backdoor.

She saw his hesitance to enter her place, it was a nice cave with pelts covering the dirt floor and quite roomy, but it was completely saturated with her scent. It was nice to see that his instinct recognized the danger that something like this could entail, it proved he was thinking like a werewolf and not like a simple wolf. She had invited him here, she had marked him as her own – albeit temporary – and fed him; other alphas or dominant wolves would have enjoyed playing him just to make him run for the hills later or even lure him into a sense of security just for an easy kill later, but that wasn’t her. With a soft yip she invited him in.

He went to lay in the farthest side of the cave from her and made himself as small as he could; it was quite depressing to watch the giant white wolf, greater even than her, turning into something so small. She would have sighed if she were a human, but she had as many good as bad memories of nights spent in dens with other wolves. She stood lazily, making sure that her body language was all nice and relaxed and walked down to him. His amber eyes were shut tight and he was trembling slightly when she finally got to his side. She nuzzled, letting warmth shine though her gaze and plopped down next to him, curling around his body as much as she could and resting her head on his back.

She let herself fall asleep, knowing that she would wake in time if he tried something harmful, but also knowing that the only way to treat him would be to show confidence and trust. Half an hour after she slept, he followed.

* * *

He was sleeping, uncaring, unbothered by the silence and the darkness that surrounded him.

This place was nothing physical but didn’t seemed immaterial either. He always came back here since… he couldn’t even begin to tell since when. Although the place was pure black, it always shifted in some way, be it density or just the feeling of it. There was only one thing that remained constant here.

_Him._

He didn’t know him. He didn’t know anyone, but at the same time this man rose in him some weird feeling – as if he _should_ know him.

But then again he didn’t know anyone. He _wasn’t_ someone to know anyone.

A word resounded through the darkness, calling him like it had many times before.

_“Longing”_

He felt himself shake awake. The darkness starting to fade, but more important – with it _he_ was gone.

_“Rusted”_

It was always like this: his edges started to bleed into the void surrounding them, strangely enough his left arm vanishing first, before his whole body started to be eaten by the darkness – starting now from his feet.

_“Seventeen”_

His smile was next. Now the man looked older, weary. Those blue eyes shone with guilt and hate, but most of all _fear_.

_“Daybreak”_

He was getting colder, the place accelerating its disappearance.

_“Furnace”_

Fighting the cold was the heat, coming from his own body. By this point the man’s waist had disappeared and he felt his limbs heavy and irresponsive.

_“Nine”_

A shudder rippled through his back, looking into the man’s eyes a feeling stuck. _This wasn’t right!_

_“Benign”_

That always hit something within him, a snort – did he even know what that meant? – caught in his throat. The darkness had swallowed the man up until his neck.

_“Homecoming”_

A fleeting feeling passing through. Warmth, caring… and then was gone again.

_“One”_

The man’s eyes were always the last thing to vanish, always with a pleading look directed to him. The void swallowed everything but those orbs, which finally closed and gave up. _And then he knew! He knew! He remembered! He…_

_“Freight car”_

And then everything vanished, eating up by the void not to be remembered until the next time he found himself within it – empty and cold once again. His eyes opened and carefully observed the room he was in, drinking every single detail. Next to him was a man, that then spoke and everything else became irrelevant.

“Good evening, Soldier”

A pause, the greeting getting to his mind and then…

“Ready to comply”

The weapon was loaded once again. The leash in the masters’ hands.

And the beast soon to be released on those poor souls whom had crossed them.


	2. Conflicts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The consequences of HYDRA's fall for the supernatural community are not to be taken lightly...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all of you who read, left kudos and put this story in your bookmarks!  
> I really hope you like it!  
> Disclaimer: The Avengers, Bucky and the rest are propierty of Marvel and I'm just playing with them; the OCs, the Subworld and the plot however, are entirely a fruit of my beautifully deranged mind.

She opened her front door and stepped in, letting Ryan follow.

It had been a week since she found him, and he was doing so right adapting that she had taken him to the mall and all – mostly because he couldn’t keep wearing Dana’s clothes, and ordering on internet was a risky business. So now he was in what many females considered the natural state of human males: carrying bags. She snickered at her own joke while going to the kitchen for something with chocolate.

Her pack mate called her.

“Hey! You just gonna leave me here all by myself?!”

“I swore to protect you from predators, not from shopping bags. Besides I’m just a poor lil’ woman, what do you expect me to do?”

 She almost couldn’t contain her giddiness at finally having a pack where she actually belonged and was needed. True, Ryan was young and his wolf still unstable, but after the first two days something seemed to click inside of him and he was behaving perfectly. She loved when he burrowed with her for comfort and looked up at her, it made her wolf feel useful and that fulfilled that side of her that had been neglected for so long.

No matter how complete her human side had been, if the wolf wasn’t right the whole of her being wasn’t right. And this was the first time since she was fifteen that she felt completely at ease and comfortable with what her life was. Now if only Dana accepted her invitation to stay and Leo knew she was still alive and good, her life would be completely perfect. But hey! One step at a time! Never surrender and all that. She had to finish Ryan’s education first.

Putting some premade waffles on the heater and grabbing some milk from the fridge she was trying to make a second breakfast for them when her work phone started to ring. Without looking she took the thing and answered.

“Garrison speaking”

“Not a ‘hello, Mark, how’re you doing’? You wound me Kay”

She half smiled half growled at the greeting of her secretary. He was a young dominant wolf from the Capital Pack whom had proven himself time and time again as an efficient worker, able to separate the supernatural business from the actual business – now if she could manage to scare him enough to make him tone down his humor everything would be alright.

“Aren’t you on your moon leave? Why’re you calling me this early in the month?”

She heard him chuckle.

“Perhaps because a certain someone didn’t reintegrate herself to her work schedule and made poor Annie rearrange a lot of meetings. Perhaps because I finally managed to get the people of Savangh-Reight to agree to a meeting with you… Or perhaps it’s because there has been a leak”

When Mark’s voice turned serious her body tensed. She could hear the truth on his words and a subtle hint of fear.

“How bad is it?”

“Bad enough. Apparently some American secret organization was infiltrated by a Nazi secret organization and they both had files and files full of data that were poured into the internet. The fae are disrupting the connections and directing human’s attention to other topics, and for what I’ve heard coders from all the packs are working overtime to take down everything about us, but it’s going to take a while. Countermeasures are being readied as we speak”

She sat on one of the stools, her undivided attention on the conversation.

“They have something on Swiftrunner?”

“More than something, most of it related to the Night Shift and the Sundown line. They were a few months away from unearthing everything, providers and clients included”

Her free hand turned to a fist, and she couldn’t contain a physical expression of rage.

“Damn it! Were they infiltrated in the Night Shift?”

“Not that we know of, but they were in the human crew”

A small growl left her throat, and she heard Mark’s quiet whine as clear as she could smell Ryan distress. With a single gaze to her pack mate she reassured him before gesturing for him to leave the room, knowing that he would hear everything anyways.

“I’ll put my hands to work as soon as this call ends. Have any of them found yet how the managed to get our encryption protocols?”

He cleared his throat.

“That’s part of why we need you on the case. Also, you’re expected in DC in three days for a Council”

The surprised surpassed anything she was feeling before.

“They invited _me_ to a Council? I am just a glorified loner! Besides I can’t go, I have a new wolf to take care of”

“You are the Conqueror and a role model of the modern supernatural citizen. Most of them are old enough that electricity is still magic to them, they are in need of a modern input of sorts and you’re their best call. They should have done this a long time ago if you ask me. And I know you far too well to know that you had planned what to do with your new friend the moment I spoke”

She huffed and started to tap her fingers on the table, knowing that she would have to go hunting before getting to work or her wolf’s restlessness would get her mad.

“Is your alpha ready to have me in his territory disrupting his power-chain?”

She heard him chuckle.

“He is readying your apartment as we speak… or at least ordering Leah to do it. I already called Dana telling her she has babysitting duty again, shall I call her and tell her she’ll also have to take care of a wolf?”

“I’ll take him with me, so better call Hernan and give him the usual threat”

“Will do… Is this a good moment to mention that the meeting with SR’s CEO is the day after the Council?”

A playful growl left her throat and she heard his answering one from the other side. She had to apart a few hours in her visit to run with him, and perhaps talk him into giving Ryan a tour of the city while she was doing business. And she also had to write in a bonus on his next check, despite the bad news he delivered he always left her with a good humor of sorts.

“I’ll be seeing you within the week Mark”

She ended up the call and sighed, letting with that simple gesture the man on the other room know that he could step back in the kitchen. She smiled up at him.

“Seems like you’ll met some of my friends a little bit earlier than what I had planned”

He slumped his shoulders and his voice was soft, carefully schooled to lack anything that could even be confused for a command.

“I don’t want to meet more wolves”

She stood and walked over to him, taking a waffle out of the machine when she passed next to it. Her hand rested on his arm and she felt him get closer to her. That part still was a little strange after years of having everyone at arms distance, and her friends not being on the clingy side. She put the waffle on his hand.

“You’re mine Ryan. I know not all wolves are good, but the ones in DC are good enough. And if some of them tries to play rough, you’ll have me to take care of them”

He let his head down and nuzzled her hair gratefully before suddenly backing away and start pacing the room. She arched her brow at him and he huffed.

“It’s just… I was never this dependent on someone before. I can’t stop thinking that I should be alarmed by the way you speak of me, or that I spend my time invading your personal space”

She just smiled warmly, knowing fully well how he felt. In times like this she just repeated the words that had been said to herself years ago, words that experience had confirmed true.

“That’s the human talking. You are a werewolf now, is not weird to look for support and comfort form your packmates or even close friends and no wolf is ever going to judge you for that”

After comforting – and feeding – him she took him for a short run. When they were back, after another meal, she let him playing something on the living room while she went to what she had dubbed the Tech Room: the rest of her house had a classic tone, but inside here there was just wiring, metal and screens.

She twirled her chair once after booting the non-commercial-grade computer that was the only thing on her house connected to the alternative servers her company owned and used when dealing with the supernatural. She had complete control of which computer had access to those, hence her anger when she had heard of information leaked on her dealings.

Usually she didn’t have any problems with the way America and the world worked: she paid her taxes in full, declared every transaction – and albeit the data was sometimes _slightly_ modified the numbers were always true – and had supported more than one philanthropic causes once she had enough money. But a downside of being a werewolf and part of her core attitude, was her dislike of people mingling on her business without her expressed – and if possible written and backed by a video of her granting it – permission. She wished to snap and bite someone’s head off at the moment.

She finally sat and started to look first for leaks on her own coding and files, any weakness and structure was thoroughly scanned, looking for something that could have slipped her. After half an hour wasted she started to run a tracker through her firewalls, that should deliver every in and out of data in the last three months before starting to look at whatever information that people had had on the supernatural and her operations.

Damn! Predatory jealousy aside, this people had been _good_ : they had a pretty accurate list of the largest American packs as well as some Canadian, Mexican and European ones – although they didn’t quite know the whole werewolf thingy and they severely overlooked the powers hidden in South America and Africa. Vampires were trickier but they had a good list on the most violent ones’ residences, based on a disappearances ratio and money movement. On fae they only had some seeings on the common and low-scale ones, as most of the High Courts sidhe had glamour or lackeys willing to do their bindings without getting their delicate hands dirty. Other supernaturals were trickier and luckily they didn’t seem to have anything on them – if the humans ever get word of the angels’ past, the world could turn into an even darker place.

She started to get her hands working, creating the first draft of a program that would copy all the archives that obeyed her search words to her personal servers and sent virus to destroy every last trace of them in any other. After checking it twice she finally set it free. Before turning the machine off, she checked her diagnosis on her firewalls: effectively, there were repeated attacks and leaks of data in small packages. The data had been stolen by an advanced virus that she could purge on a few minutes, but the attacks had a pattern she had never seen before and would take a time to create a countermeasure.

She finally got out of the room, to find out that it was nighttime already. The smell of food reached her nostrils and she sighed before following it, enchanted to find that her companion had cocked.

She slept well that night, for despite everything that was bad in the world many things were still good.

* * *

He stood frozen in front of the exhibit: there he was, looking straight at him like something out of a dream. His breathing turned heavier when he rationalized, because this was the man that _always_ appeared on the Void, this was the man the Captain had said he was.

But he couldn’t be.

He was a monster.

He was _the_ monster.

A flicker of a memory passed through his mind. His brain plying tricks with him, taunting him with figments of things that made his heart hurt on his chest but that he, for the love of all that is sacred, _couldn’t get himself to remember!_

His instincts were asking him to go back to the cage, to the leash, to the comfort of the routine and the warm darkness of oblivion. But he didn’t wanted to listen to that part of him anymore, instead he was reaching out to the blue eyed, smiling man he had always watched from afar.

James Buchanam Barnes.

That was the man’s name. That was _his_ name, but he was not him, not anymore.

He turned and pulling the cap down once again with his right human hand walked away from the museum, looking forward to getting lost in the crown and the city, to do something as familiar and easy as walk while his mind was trying to build a semblance of a person.

He had been a machine for so long that didn’t even know what that felt anymore.

He turned into another pedestrian walking down the streets of a convoluted DC, trying to formulate a plan of action – trying to decide by what name should he go by now.

When the sky opened and the rain fell down on him that night, he hadn’t gotten a single one of his doubts and questions answered.

 


	3. Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Supernatural emergency council overview, CEOs making business and a soldier and a wolf crossing paths.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thanks to you all that give this story a chance. Next week there won't be an update, as I'll be wading the dangerous waters that are partials. Enjoy this piece!  
> Disclaimer: The Avengers, Bucky and the rest are propierty of Marvel and I'm just playing with them; the OCs, the Subworld and the plot however, are entirely a fruit of my beautifully deranged mind.

Four days later, she walked down a hallway from a meeting room, trying her best to keep her schooled expression calm and her instincts on check.

The late meeting with Savangh-Reight’s CEO couldn’t have gone smoother if she had used some form of mind control on him: both of them had quickly and easily got to a mutually beneficial agreement and planned out five years’ worth of collaboration projects. Everything was right on that side and her economical future was assured.

Ryan and Mark had taken well towards each other after she ran with both of them two days ago, and were even beginning a tentative friendship full off boring accountant facts and more tits that she felt comfortable with. And Dana was taking care of her territory back home, so everything was well in the world.

Or at least should be if the fuckers that made up the Emergency Council could get their heads out of their asses for one second. God, how she wanted to rip something to pieces with her fangs!

The Council last night had been a nightmare, almost literally: the vampires wanted a massive brainwashing campaign on the human population, the fae wanted to get out of the closet and take over the world, and the wolves only wanted to make humans stop taking down trees and scaring prey. Angels, walkers and witches didn’t have a voice on the matter, though some like those of her own kind wanted to lay fault on those minorities and let them quite literally to the wolves.

Other groups were angry because of other reasons. Many of them had seen the return of the Æsir during the Battle of New York and wished to take them down; others wanted to reveal themselves, saying that a battle like that could have been easily avoided with their power.

Everything was talked over but the matter at hand, old grudges had been rekindled and new ones forged. She had been seriously considering going on a killing rampage by the morning, when the meeting was called off and a new date appointed for the next month – the excuse being that ‘there was a need for them to see how the matter evolved’. Had they actually payed attention to the progressions and predictions her workers and herself had made that wouldn’t have been necessary.

Showoffs, proves of power and wealth, even frigging dancers but not a single solution to the matter at hand!

Her blood was boiling hot on her veins, her mandible was pushed so tight that her teeth grinded against each other with too much strength – the elongated fangs didn’t helped either. She hadn’t slept, had been to tense to eat and the heels were hurting her feet: if she were to meet her fellow wolves on this state she would lash out at them and traumatize Ryan forever. She needed to unwind, and she had just the thing.

Pulling out her phone and calling in a few of her contacts while she walked down to her rental car granted her a full day on one of the city’s best ice rink. Mark could keep her packmate busy with tourist stuff while she pretended for herself that she wasn’t a werewolf and was just back to the good ol’ days when her only preoccupation was to land on the nationals.

She made a stop to grab her equipment from her apartment and then get on with it, anger turning excitement on her at the simple thought of doing what she did best once again.

Once on the rack she changed to her nondescript black costume and readied herself the music on the lone stadium’s impressive sound system before going down to the ice with a song she wouldn’t do opening the way before the playlist got to the good stuff. She was ready with her blades on the center of the rack when the first song started.

She let herself go, human and wolf it didn’t matter anymore: it was only her, the music and the ice. One of the best things of being what she was, was that stamina was not a problem anymore, nor getting close up and personal with the ice: she could do this for an entire day if she wanted, with jumps and twirls and everything and not get tired. She let her articulations and emotions to the music’s whim, song after song until there was nothing of her behind but a blank slate to be filled with whichever the song needed of her.

She kept skating even when her mind was finally at peace, not ready yet to go back to the world, her muscles starting to ache at being pulled in positions they weren’t used to anymore. When the ache turned into pull she finished the song and stopped, looking at her watch, unsurprised to find out that she had been there for more than a few hours already.

After getting out of the ice she rested until the pull stopped and the ache settled. She would sleep like a baby that night.

She packed her things, got her music back and got out, letting her things on her car before deciding that a walk was in order and that she had to find some take-out because she definitely wasn’t cooking and whatever Ryan or Mark could manage to do wouldn’t be nearly enough for her right now. With a small smile and warmth spreading through her at the thought of going back to her pack, she blocked the vehicle and started to walk down the street, unbothered by the light breeze on the early hours of the night.

Doing this reminded her of the things she had done in the past and couldn’t anymore. She had used to walk her brother to spend the night on some of his friends’ houses and go back while listening music on her earbuds; now her brother was on the other side of the country rising like a star in the NBA and were she to even try to cover her ears her wolf would drive her mad. She couldn’t walk normal ever again either, her steps cursed forever with the easy yet elegant and dangerous way predators walked; and her senses were always picking up information she didn’t needed outside of a fight, a part of her brain always compromised on analyzing every single bit of dust that dared step on her way.

She stopped suddenly, not knowing where she was. For the look of the illumination it had been awhile since the sun went down and the lack of pedestrians on the street along with the graffiti and generally rundown aspect of the buildings told her she had gotten on a bad neighborhood. It was a reflex the sudden feeling of self-consciousness that assaulted her when she remembered the clothes – and most important, the _price_ of them – she was currently on. She stiffened when she heard footsteps behind and as discretely as she could scented the air.

She didn’t know how to react at what she found out, but by turning and looking straight into the grey-blue eyes of the man. She saw him stiffen when his confused and tired gaze met hers, but she wasn’t paying as much attention to his corporal language as she should, instead she was taking in large breaths trying to clarify what her mind told her: human, but _not_ ; some beast like her own but it wasn’t that clear, and the _wrongness_ mingled with his clear scent of pine forest and winter clashing with leather and something spicy didn’t made things easier. She wasn’t aware of the way her eyes flashed amber while she thought of the possibilities for a human to have that particular scent - which usually indicated a curse of sorts - nor that he had seen it.

Her attention was brought back from her musings when she heard a crash behind her and turned quickly to find a group of young males that walked purposefully towards them. Adrenaline cursed through her veins at the sight of the blades some of them held, but their scents revealed nothing but human, so different yet so similar to the man at her other side. A man whom was now walking towards her too.

She turned fully to face the youngsters when he reached her side, and he stopped there, as tense as she felt, with his teeth grinding and his whole being oozing danger. His cold gaze was probably the worst, and even though his eyes hadn’t changed color like hers could, she just _knew_ the man of the confused gaze and this one were two very different people. The humans got closer and she gazed at them, wishing to growl and send them away with her command voice, but not knowing how it would affect the unchecked variable at her side.

They got closer, their target being the man but she caught their attention too. Her wolf was screaming to teach this people a lesson, but her logic – ater all, a telling off by the Council was the last thing she needed right now – and her curiosity over what the non-human would do was enough no the give her free reign. Still she almost snapped when one of them walked straight ahead and pushed - or at least tried to - the man by her side.

“We told you to scram, fuckface.” The boy sneered and postured, trying to be threatening to a man who had a head over him. Even with all her tight control over her violence she couldn’t help but snort, and that grabbed his attention. “And look, he brought a little bitch to play with him. We’d even forgive you if you let this cutie here with us”

He made a not-so-subtle-sign to his friends and they started to surround them, she almost snorts again as the man went to touch her face, choosing instead to intercept his wrist and looking straight into his eyes while she used her normal voice, hoping than her gaze would be enough to send him away.

“You really don’t want to fight us. Go away now, you and your friends”

She saw his eyes glaze over, smelled fear dawn on his scent and felt his wrist tremble on her iron grip. Everything was fine for a moment, she knew he would back down and go away, letting her clear to interrogate the mysterious man.

And then hell broke loose.

She never saw the knife coming at her because the non-human at her side had already stopped it by the time her brain processed the threat. Her own body reacted on its own accord when she felt the human snap out of his daze and try to get to his own weapon, twisting the hand on her grasp and pulling one of his legs with her own, making him lose balance.

She didn’t softened the hit on his head, and used his dazed state to jump into the fight with the rest and help the other man – who actually didn’t seemed to need any help at all, the men were falling like leaves on the wind at his certain hits. He was very efficient, she noted while getting two who were trying to get him from behind, every movement measured and useful, not wasting a single unnecessary breath.

Something was nagging at the back of her mind though, something that cried out loud its importance while she was rendering her targets unconscious. She remembered when she got to her last one: while she had been concentrated on the first boy earlier, the one who had tried to attack her with a knife had screamed something about a witch. She cursed under her breath, her mind a mile per hour giving her the possible reasons and consequences of such revelation.

She punched her last man in the gut and pressed a nerve on his neck, while her eyes moved to the one who had helped her. He was looking at her with the cold beast eyes, his fingers moving slowly with contained energy and his whole posture screaming that he was ready to attack. She moved slowly, reaching for her phone and showing it to him, never looking away from his gaze.

She didn’t used command, but put forward a soothing quality in her tone when she spoke with measured words.

“I have to call someone to clean this mess, I won’t say anything about you if you don’t want me to”

She waited patiently for him to decide, watching the predator go away and the confused and more human look take root again in his eyes before he nodded slowly, insecure and still wary of her. She used the speed dial to call Mark and put it on speaker, allowing him to hear everything if he wanted. Her friend finally answered with his usual witty words.

“You’ve reached the phone of Mark Howard, if you happen to be a certain bullheaded alpha, I highly suggest you haul your ass back to your pup or I will drag you back here kicking and screaming”

A small smile drew on her face before schooling her features again.

“I will be there soon, but I need you to send a team to interrogate a few humans. I will debrief you on the situation on the apartment, but for now tell your alpha to tell his people to refrain from trying to use any form of manipulation on an individual when there are other humans nearby”

Mark’s voice was serious when he answered,

“I’ll get the coordinates from your phone and the team will be there in ten minutes tops”

She saw the man slowly start to back away.

“Send me a message once you’ve pinpointed the location. And order me a huge meal before leaving”

She didn’t give him a chance to answer before ending the call, and took some careful steps towards the man. He stopped and stood there, looking ready to bolt or to spring back into battle-mode. She put her hands forward while still walking, pretty sure that the beginning of coldness in his eyes had something to do with the way she had spoken to Mark.

"Do you have some ties you can call upon if some of our own were to find you here?" She asked as protocol demanded, even though she doubted it.

If he said he had someone who could answer for him she would have to let him alone. She had been taught since her first moon that all of the species in this world had some sort of support network, something only the most powerful and private managed to avoid - being an angel or a witch was also a good way to be excluded, though usually that was done on purpose to bring harm upon those groups. Every wolf she had met over the years, on a pack or as a loner in some territory or other had always been bound to an alpha, sometimes from as far as Australia, but bound nontheless; it helped to form a front against humans and other species. It kept everyone safe.

And it was her duty as an alpha, albeirt a wolf and not in her territory, to ask him and take him in were he to answer negatively.

When he moved his head in wary denial, his body tensing and his fingers twiching she consciously forced her shoulders and back to relax a little. She spoke again, her voice even and calm.

“You don’t have to do anything I ask you to, but I would like you to come with me. This is not a neutral territory and with the things as they are if some faction catches you here  _unbounded_ and  _without permission_ they will not be kind”

He looked even more confused now, and kept looking between her eyes and her always moving hands. She took a step forward and he held one of his hands up, stopping her effectively. She took a second to truly see him: he was at least half a foot taller than her, and much bulkier, he had stuble of a few days darkening his chiseled features, and gaunt cheekbones told her that he hadn’t eaten properly even when his strength seemed alright. There was something weird with his left arm, it moved slightly _different_ than anything she had ever seen but perhaps it was the result of some injury. His hair was long a greasy but fell on his face in a favoring way, and his eyes told anyone who knew how to read them he had been through hell.

She recognized in him a stray, like she had been before Dana, like Ryan had been before herself: someone walking the edge of the cliff, as possible to return to his human side as to let himself fall to the beast. Her attention was intent on him, smelling every swift change in his mixed emotions while he took a deep breath.

“Why would you want to protect me?”

His voice was soft and as lost as the rest of him. He couldn’t seem to grasp her intent and that broke her heart. How much you had to press, to broke, to maim a wolf for it to forget even the most basic feeling of pack and belonging? Something even humans had. Her wolf whimpered through her lips in simpathy and she let her, smiling a sad smile to him.

“Because…” she stopped herself before going overboard with her feelings, taking a breath and pulling the beast back. He didn’t need to know that yet. “Because that is what I do,” she answered instead “is my duty as an Alpha”

She walked down to him keeping her attitude open and quiet as much as she could without triggering her own alarms. She held her hand to him for a shake and lowered her head a bit, keeping the wolf on a tight leash now, treading dangerous territory.

“I offer you a meal and a safe place to stay, freely and without compromises. I will do my best to explain to you somethings but I can’t touch others' affairs unless you accept my protection” It wasn't exactly the words she would have used with a wolf but they conveyed the meaning of what both her and her wolf were offering him.

His gaze lightened and so did his scent, his whole face rejuvenated like ten years and his whole demeanor spoke of one thing: hope.

“You mean, you can explain… _this_?” he asked, signaling to himself.

She nodded and gave him a friendly smile, not that dissimilar as the one she was giving Ryan just a few days ago. He seemed to take a moment to meditate it one last time before nodding himself to her proposal. Her smile turned bigger and she trusted her still extended hand awkwardly to him.

“I am Karen Garrison by the way”

He looked at her hand with a bit of doubt but ended up taking it at her encouraging smile. His grip was strong and secure despite all his emotional struggles. After letting her hand go, he offered his name.

“I’m… My name is James Barnes”

Karen smiled again – positive stimuli, kept murmuring her mind, keep him calm and teach him to feel safe again – and checked her phone for Mark’s message before taking a breath to track her own scent down and turn towards where her car was. She held her hand signaling the direction.

“Shall we go to get my car and go home?”

He nodded slowly and she smiled again, starting to walk in front of him with full trust that he wouldn’t hurt her.

* * *

He couldn’t tell for his life what she was.

From the beginning his assassin training had screamed and made him stay on high alert at the seemingly common woman walking down the street without a care for who could be behind her. Then he had seen her eyes change from a deep chocolate color to bright amber, and later she had tried to talk down a group of kids who had been bothering him earlier.

The brawl revealed to him she wasn’t a simple gal: her fighting style was unpolished but her forms held a grace, a swiftness and a strength he hadn’t thought possible from her average muscle mass. And then she hadn’t not only not recognized him – his face hadn’t been plastered on the news but his metal arm was kind of a dead giveaway and he was pretty sure his fingers had been visible during the fight – but offered him protection.

It goes without saying that his first thought was that she was from some shady organization wishing to get the infamous Winter Soldier between their assets. Her way of speaking while on the phone added up to the evidence to that side.

But then her eyes had flashed amber again and from her throat came a sound similar to that of a wounded dog. She spoke on strange terms he had never heard applied to people, and her words had sounded almost ritualistic while offering him explanations.

Her demeanor as a whole made no sense, and although he was intrigued and scared by it something in him knew she wasn’t playing him. That was why he was currently sitting by her side on her sedan, with some mellow music in a language he didn’t know playing softly as background, with her joining here and there seamlessly. She didn’t seem to care about making small talk and hadn’t commented once on his weird posture in the car nor his metal arm, for which he was thankful.

She took them downtown and he was quite pleased for once with being allowed to just sit and enjoy the ride, not having some debriefing or having to hide or prep for a mission. A long sigh left his lips and her eyes went to him for a second before going back to the road. She soon entered the underground parking of a building and stopped.

The woman, Karen, took a breath after turning off the engine and looked at him in the eyes.

“I hope this is not a deal-breaker but I have another person living with me. He has the same needs as you have so I don’t think this is going to be a real problem, but I don’t want fights as of yet; you can work out your dominance issues after you’re both are fully acclimatized”

He decided to ignore the strange speech again – some part of his old mind suggested that perhaps it was one of her quirks, while the other said that perhaps she was talking in code for some secret organization – and fix in what mattered: another person knowing about him.

He was thorn. On one hand he didn’t wanted, didn’t _needed_ more people to know where he was or even that he was still living and kicking, but on the other hand she had told him the other person was in need of the same help as he was. But what if that man was an HYDRA agent or something? He looked up to her, unknowingly searching for assurance that she freely gave with a smile before nodding his confirmation.

It’s not like he couldn’t fight his way out were his assessment wrong.

He followed her to an elevator, where on the way up she turned a bit fidgety and started to mumble under her breath. When they got out she almost growled and scrunched her nose.

_Cute_ , said a part of his mind that had been always silent before and he just sighed, preparing himself while his host put her key on a lock and opened the door to her residence.

Unbeknownst to him, by crossing that thereshold behind Karen, he entered a whole new world of trouble.


	4. Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some insight on Hernan and pack mechanics, as well as a movie night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again from hell with a new instalment and a world that's more developed everyday.  
> I hope you enjoy it!  
> Disclaimer: The Avengers, Bucky and the rest are propierty of Marvel and I'm just playing with them; the OCs, the Subworld and the plot however, are entirely a fruit of my beautifully deranged mind.

She couldn’t help but growl at Mark when she saw him sitting nonchalantly on _her_ couch next to another wolf that _didn’t_ belong here. James behind her startled a little, and Ryan on the other side of the room whined and made himself small on a corner.

Karen breathed deeply, calming down her possessive instinct that screamed at her to get the other alpha _the hell out of her territory_ , but all things considered she was the intruder here. Besides, getting angry would not only be counter producing to her relations with the local pack, but could also ruin her work with Ryan and destroy any semblance of trust her new friend could have had for her. So she did her best not to bare her teeth to the other alpha in the room.

Had she not released most of her stress earlier with her dancing and fighting her blood would have called for a fight the second she smelled him on the elevator; as it was, she only wanted him out so she could relax and start working on getting her boys acquainted without killing each other. She ignored him blatantly just to piss him off, and invited Ryan closer with a gesture of her hand and a smile, giving him the option to refuse.

She let the pride show in her eyes and her stance when he overpowered his wolf, who was screaming at him to stay away from the unknown alpha, – a reaction, she would have to tell him later, he should always abide to were she not present in the same room – and walked down until he was in front of her, stealing glances to her companion. Karen smiled at him and caressed his arms softly, comforting him.

“James, this is Ryan. Ryan, this is James, he will be staying with us for now. Would you mind showing him to the bathroom a giving him fresh clothes?”

He nodded, relieved to have some excuse to get him out of the room. She turned then to the silent man behind her, looking straight into his eyes and waiting for his answer. At his small nod she made herself scarce between them, but waited until they were out of the room to turn and frown at Hernan, who smirked at her before going serious.

“Caring to explain why did you rendered ten humans unconscious in a time like this? And on my territory no less!”

She huffed and regaled him with a grimace.

“You know that you could have called or waited for Mark to pass you the data, there was no need for you to be here”

He snickered and waved his hand dismissively.

“My man here is far too deep in your business to be trustworthy, and someone might be listening your calls”

Karen snorted at his logic reasons.

“It’s not my pack on the List but I celebrate your rampant paranoia. Also, half-truths won’t save you with me”

“Yeah, Dana is a true asset in this kind of situations, eh?” It was his turn to grimace this time. “How comes I’m alpha of the largest pack in America, yet I don’t have any tricky thingy like you and Lowie?"

With a sign she dismissed Mark, who fled the apartment with a loud laugh while his alpha growled playfully. She occupied his place in her comfy red couch, right next to Hernan.

“Perhaps if you do an exercise in tolerance and accept some other than seasoned wolves…” He snorted and she shrugged. “Or you could simply start practicing some magic; that always works for our people”

He laughed this time.

“Not all of us can be warlocks, honey. No, in the end I’m quite happy as I am, doing something would only disrupt that”

“I would say that the world is pushing disruptions our way every day, but I know what you mean. Two weeks ago I would’ve thought nothing of some random teen calling me witch, now…”

He abandoned his relaxed posture and put his hand on her back.

“Mark relayed to me that we shouldn’t use our persuasion on individuals with other people nearby. How did you get in that situation? Last I heard your command voice managed to send Bearny running with the tail between his legs”

“You saw the man who came with me; though he is no wolf he has some beast residing inside of him. My current theory is a curse.  I was trying to aid with him without hitting his triggers: at best he is less dominant and cowers at me, at worst he is far more dominant and tears me apart. Either way I would have lost his trust”

His hand moved to ruffle to her long mane, the chocolate strands making a clear contrast against his pale Scandinavian skin. She huffed and hit him lightly on his shoulder, relishing in the comfort and approval radiating from him.

“I turn my eyes a few seconds and you decide to dedicate your time to take in strays. Sadly I cannot let you get away with the last one, remember the rules”

She tensed but didn’t get his hand off her, instead choosing to tip her head to the side and let her very human dark eyes to meet his hazel ones.

“So, what’s going to be the price?”

He smiled brightly but his eyes tingled with the same shine they did while on a hunt.

“I’m going to be easy on ya, don’t worry. All I want is, now that you’re taking in people, to take over the caring of a European wolf. Ricky thinks we are the best ones to deal with him, but it would be better, considering the recent developments, for him to be on a more secure and secluded area”

She crossed her arms and arched her brow.

“Nothing is easy with you. What’s the deal with him or her?”

His smile turned sad and his eyes distant.

“He was forcefully turned two years ago, hasn’t changed back once ever since”

She felt a knot settle on her stomach, remembering clearly her own struggles and forcing a sympathetic whine back.

“Why hasn’t he been put down yet?”

Hernan lifted his hand from her and sat back against the couch, one of his arms held up with his gaze carefully fixed on his hand.

“Despite his reluctance to shift, he has shown no signs of aggressive behavior thus far: he is cooperative during full moon hunts and obeys every over given to him.” He saw her pointed gaze and moved his head in denial. “He is dominant, just doesn’t want to fight nor do anything human-related. I would have asked you to do this even if your James wasn’t on the line”

She sighed and rose to pace the room. The attention Ryan had required the week and a half she had been with him had been exhausting and she had been willing to take care of another poor soul, but three? All of sudden she knew why Hernan only took old wolves. And yet a part of her had already begun to think not only of James, but of that other unknown wolf on terms of ‘pups’ and ‘pack’.

Her eyes set on her fellow alpha minutes later, asking before thinking too much of her questions.

"How do you controll it? This instincts of taking and caring..."

He smiled benevolently.

"You don't just canalize it towards what you need to do. We are pack animals Kay, without people to protect we are nothing, and your wolf is taking advantage of an opening to take what she has been denied"

Karen huffed.

"I'm not as good as putting things together as you may think, old man"

"You managed to ensure political safety for a runnaway angelic slave. If you survived that then a few wolves will be piece of cake... Does this wole conversation mean that you'll take this wolf in?" She nodded and he smiled “I’ll bring him here tomorrow before you go. I already set the pack’s jet for you and made Mark cancel your plane tickets”

“You think of all, pal” Said she while smiling tiredly.

His smile turned sly while standing, collecting his jacket and pepping a swift exit.

“Well, you still have to tell Dana and bring them truly into the pack. You need any help with the rituals let me know”

Another huff and a playful snarl from her and he was out laughing at her antics.

Karen stood a few seconds thinking of the things she had to do, before shunning her own thoughts and deciding to go look for the food she had asked for. She sniffed looking for the scent of it before a large smile drew on her face. If Mark keep treating her this way an income rise might be in order – again.

She was setting the coffee table in front of the couch and the TV when the males went back into the room, both of them looking tense. Ryan had a frown on his face and James was as stoic as ever, dressed in clothes a bit too small for him with his left hand still in the leather glove he had come with, a frown drew on her face at this but then dismissed it – after all Dana _always_ wore some kind of glove on her hands, even on executive meetings.

An inquisitive gaze had the young wolf huffing and fleeing to the kitchen to look for the food. She arched her eyebrow to the other man, but he just stood there with impassive stance.

 _Men_ , was the thought her mind conjured as an explanation. A quiet chuckle tickled her throat when she thought of a subtle way to push them. Her eyes landed on the box that held her DVDs and her smile grew with a mischievous tint.

* * *

He was thankful when the other man took his place at the woman’s right. He still didn’t knew either why she hadn’t found out about his metal arm or who he was, but was thankful for that. She had given him nice food and a roof without asking for anything but his name, and even when her whole being and surroundings were at least suspicious she also felt safe in a way he didn’t remember ever experiencing.

She had put an animated flick and told them something about bonding before eating a surprising amount of the meat in front of them and snuggling, completely comfortable, with both of them in the couch. Ryan had eaten less than her, and looked warily at him and admiringly at her the whole meal before averting his gaze when she started to turn emotional. He himself stopped looking at her when he saw her tear up.

At first the movie was weird: aliens talking about an experimental living weapon and his following disposition. The creature was hell-bent in destroying everything, as it was its purpose – didn’t that seemed a little bit too similar? – But then the love of a small girl and her sister brought out the best of it. The last part of the movie was heartwarming, he was snapped from it for a moment- and almost jumped right into action to get rid of a supposed attacker - when the woman beside him took his right arm into a surprisingly strong hug with her left one, doing the same at her other side with her friend and snuggling closer to them. He considered for a large minute to get his limb out of her grip, but despite the unexpected strength of the movement it was loose enough – and she had this calm aura around her again, strong and serene if a bit sad.

He saw the other man sigh and bask in her comfort, even if the gestures which he used were a little weird, perhaps it was the time gap between them what made it so. She didn’t moved, her whole attention on the screen and he himself calmed and allowed her to hold him, even if he never truly relaxed in her arms.

When the movie ended tear tracks ran her cheeks and she was sniffing softly. He really couldn’t think of a reason for her over emotional reaction – the whole scene with the alien talking about family was good, but not _that_ good. Ryan at the other side of her made a whining sound – that weirded him out – and it grabbed her attention.

She combed his hair softly trying to dismiss her distress, but he whined again and she sighed before answering his implicit question.

“I have a younger brother – he is all that remains from our family. I had to abandon him shortly after our parents died and I was turned into this, for his own good though I highly doubt he even remembers me at this point”

Ryan hugged her arm in both of his, and it was damn _weird_ to see a man as large and seemegly confident as him behaving so demure and clingy around the smaller female.

“What’s he doing now? Why don’t you go and see him?”

A bitter laugh wasn’t what both of them were expecting from her.

“You really want to drag people like _him_ to this world? In this awful times? He, and every human connection we had before are better off without us”

He couldn’t help but agree, his own bitterness against the world and what had been done to him rising to the surface. He wanted to complain still, at least she knew who she was, she remembered the people who had once been important to her – his only connection to the past was the picture of a scrawny guy turned super soldier, nothing on his parents or siblings.

 _Lost_.

And he finally understood the reason of her tears, because in this moment he wanted to cry too: they were the little alien, things created to destroy and with no family to call their own – out of time, out of what made him human.

He lost everything his companions said next, for he was lost in his own inner world, in the darkness that always invaded his mind in between missions after they wiped his thoughts – _his being –_ out. For once he wasn’t looking at the man he now supposed had been him in the past, but at a dark figure prefilled against a light that came from nowhere. The man was the same height, had long hair falling over his face and when he saw the metal hand peeking through the jacket’s sleeve he knew who was this man: the Winter Soldier.

He raised his head and locked his blue eyes with him, there were the other figure had been a canvas of emotion even in the darkest moments he was _cold_ , with a simmering anger bleeding through his ice blue eyes that paralyzed him on the spot and brought his worst fears to the surface. He tried to scream when the man started to walk to him but to no avail. His gaze went down on a whim and saw that the darkness was engulfing him.

His breathing turned fast and shallow. He tried to _move_ , to _do_ something but his body was unresponsive. The Soldier extended his left hand towards him, his heart practically beating out of his chest. The hand was intended for his face, but he felt it press on his shoulder.

The moment the hand touched him, he snapped out of whatever had taken a hold on him.

His hands grabbed the person, now shadowed by the lack of light, and pulling his body upright he tried to get them under him to punch them. A sharp, high pitched yelp left the figure when he put more pressure, but surprisingly he or she didn’t bulge. His eyes were called to the light when it appeared, in the form of two sharp amber circles that were watching him with something between anger and understanding in them.

His mind didn’t processed fast enough what he was seeing and surprise and fear gripped his being when suddenly the owner of the eyes growled menacingly and flipped _him_ over as if he weighted nothing. His back landed on a mattress and was then when he really woke and analyzed the situation: he must have fallen asleep, someone had taken him to a bed and he had had a nightmare.

A soft click and his eyes were pierced by bright light. Adapting quickly he saw the figure of Karen, her eyes still amber with a frown on her face. He saw bruises forming and disappearing before his eyes there where he had griped her on his fit and tried to subdue her. The room was empty besides themselves and he wasn’t particularly concerned with the decoration.

He himself was drenched in sweat and still breathing heavily, the feeling of the darkness eating him up while the Soldier reached out to him was still in his mind. He wanted to wake, leave the bed and do something until his body and his mind was numb enough to fall asleep without worrying about dreams or nightmares, but when he made a movement to leave the bed she stopped him with her eyes going back to brown. He asked the first that came to his mind, not allowing her to speak.

“Why do your eyes change colors?”

Her eyebrows went high in surprise even when her lips stayed furrowed in some negate feeling he couldn’t put a name to. She sighed before answering, and he was surprised to find that despite her very awake gaze her voice was sleepy and her words a little slurred, with some soft accent showing.

“It’s something that happens when my other side decides to make an appearance.” Her eyes stopped shining altogether and her whole being seemed to slump a little bit with exhaustion. “You do something similar, just your eyes just lose every ounce of emotion.”

She yawned before patting his arm softly before getting off his bed.

“Go to sleep. You get another nightmare you can come to sleep with me”

He had the impression she not only wasn’t suggesting something sexual, but also was commanding him to do her will. Something in her gaze was hard but comforting, even when he had no intention of getting anywhere near her after this.

She left his room and he let himself fall in the soft bedding. His eyes turned to the side table, intending to turn off the lamp just to find a glass of milk sitting there.

He murmured a soft thanks to the air at the gesture, even when he wasn’t going to take it before turning off the light and settling again to sleep. He had the strong impression that she had heard him and answered before losing himself again to the unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brownie points to those who guess the movie James, Karen and Ryan saw!


	5. Interlude - Virus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karen isn't as good in codding as she likes to think...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This one is a short one, but it was a very stressful week in all fronts so this is the best I could scrap togheter. I'm thinking of keeping this structure for the future, with small interludes like this popping here and there to tell you some details that will clear things out in the future.  
> I hope you enjoy it as much as I do writing it! Thank you all for reading and see you next week!  
> Disclaimer: The Avengers, Bucky and the rest are propierty of Marvel and I'm just playing with them; the OCs, the Subworld and the plot however, are entirely a fruit of my beautifully deranged mind.

### April 23rd 2014

  
It was quarter past three in the morning when JARVIS came with the data.

He had been doing the usual of his sleepless nights: tinker with his suits drafts, write in concepts to explore later or even making some piece or other while keeping an eye on Dum-E and his damned fire extinguisher. Everything to keep his mind out of the nightmares and the memories of days barely six years before he had never even thought would come to be his reality.

At the moment he was welding some circuits for the new repulsors for his next suit that would allow him to take and redirect energy from external sources more efficiently and with a minimal dispersion in heat and damage to the piece. Making things was one of the few things that brought comfort to him this days, one of the few activities when he was truly relaxed and free to let his mind flow wherever it wanted... like how living in the tower with the team had proven time and time again to be strenuous, but now that most of them were gone to follow their own paths or missions – or hiding in a lab like himself – he couldn’t help but miss the noise and the life that had filled the halls, though not even under torture would he ever admit it.

 “Sir, I have found some advanced virus trying to erase information from our servers”

The English accented, somewhat mechanical voice flowed flawlessly to his ears and his mind, the words registering quickly and his mind thinking of the different possibilities for that. He raised from his position and stood next to one of the many computers on his lab.

“Put the data on-screen JARVIS”

The lines of code appeared almost instantly over the glass and his gaze flew, processing everything while his own hands worked on the keyboard under his fingers, dismantling every single piece that deserved his attention. Whomever had done this was _good_ , like military-grade good and even a little bit more, but there were some sloppy things here and there and some lines didn’t belong to the same hand – the logic was flawless too, but different from the main frame of the program. It was a clever little thing this virus, even when he had done far better this was very nice for common - mortal, non genius - people to manage.

The target and its way of working was weird – and flawed. It was looking for some info in SHIELD’s and HYDRA’s dumped files, most of which were now protected in his servers behind his own firewalls – and the fact that this virus had managed to pass through those was impressive on its own – but the files marked as targets were some of the agencies more common espionage, nothing fancy like the Asgardians or the Tesseract.

He was surprised though when various names from some of his own business partners popped up: Henley from Erleston Industries, Garrison and Slade from Swiftrunner Solutions… Hell! Even Johnsson from Solritte Global! The man was the kindest, softest – _silliest_ his mind corrected – businessman he had ever met. The others he could understand, their business could be dangerous in some way or other, but Johnsson just _painted_ _steel sheets_ and made other minor steel and aluminum supplies – and nothing military-grade either, you could go to any construction store and find all of his products.

But there had to be something on to it, something he would have never thought twice had he only found this names on SHIELD’s old files. He couldn’t help but snort, whomever was behind the virus and thus the wish for this information to disappear had done the wrong thing to avoid attention. He found data on some very specific operations and dates, as well as a calendar of their assistances to work and some notes to delve deeper into the inner workings of the respective organizations – that were really secretive with some tings by the looks of it.

“JARVIS, track the virus back to its origins and find as many information as you can on the business marked on its search”

“In what should I focus, Sir?”

“Everything: stake holders, sales, personal, supply chain… Everything that SHIELD was interested in I want found, decrypted and ready to take to a lawyer or a strike team if needed be”

“I will inform you as soon as I have finished, Sir”

Tony went back to his work with a smirk on his face and curiosity shinning in his eyes, happy to have a new mystery to unravel and even more people to torture in the near future.


	6. Clash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New pack member, arrival back to the territory and a fight with the Soldat.

Karen knew having to take care of a pack besides herself and Dana was going to be heavy work. She was ready to take responsibilities and be careful with her interactions and her ways, to try and not to make neither wolf nor human sides uncomfortable. But this was simply ridiculous.

She had spent the whole night in a half-sleep, waking occasionally to take care of both Ryan’s and James’ nightmares, the latter hell bent on violence every time she woke him from one, while the former almost took up the rest of her time with his need for comfort. She had been a few steps away from unleashing a full command and force them to shift and sleep all in a pack heap.

Had Hernan not brought breakfast along with the new wolf, she would have bitten someone’s head off before getting to the plane. All the stress she had relieved from the meeting the day before, had come back fully when she received a message from Dana with a picture of her monitor and the message that someone was trying – and pretty much succeeding – to track the origin of her virus wiping supernatural information of the web. That, plus her two nights without sleep and the constant nagging of her wolf in the back of her mind were slowly turning her crazy.

Being currently sitting in the only human transportation that could kill her added to her nerves already on edge. She was with her back to the pilots – two seasoned elves that knew better than to speak beyond the necessary on a flight – and watching James and Ryan sitting on opposite sides of the cabin while the new addition, Mance, lied at her feet.

He was a huge white wolf with amber eyes and a little bit of black dotting his fluffy fur on his ears and his lower back. He was as large as her on that form, his manners were elegant and his temperament easy. The only defect she could find thus far, was that he hadn´t let her side since meeting her – probably trying to avoid some form of confrontation with the other males.

Trying to sleep with them so close was useless, most of all because her wolf wouldn’t be caught dead sleeping in a place she didn’t considered safe _and_ with people she didn’t fully trust not to turn on her. She sighed and spent the whole travel doing some light work on her laptop, her eyes snapping up at every little sound.

When they got out of the airport she was thankful once again for her friend’s prevision to call Annie, her witch secretary back on Providence’s Swiftrunner offices, and tell her to get her gorgeous bright blue Ford Ranger waiting for her. Luckily she didn’t had a hard time stomping some male pretention to drive with James, so after letting Ryan on the front, him on the back and Mance on the cargo she drove her way back home.

She couldn’t decide if she was happy and ready to bask on the sharp silence that filled the vehicle the long hour, or if claw her eyes off because of the building stress. Her stereo was playing some soundtrack she loved but all she could hear was white sound. Her restlessness assuaged a bit the moment she was inside the unseen frontiers of her territory, but she only breathed easily when she drove down the road to her place and saw her second waiting for her on the porch.

She got out the second the motor was off and filled her lungs with the clean, fresh air of her place, the smells of pack, magic and nature tickling her nose and relaxing her muscles. The sunlight through the leaves and the soft breeze only added to the atmosphere.

A soft chuckle made her open the eyes she had closed unconsciously, only to find Dana with a sly smile resting a hip in a wooden column, her arms comfortably crossed under her breasts, her right wing covered in bandages while the left was spread to impress. Her expression was one of general amusement, even when her eyes were wary and intent on the males that had gotten out of the car. Her voice held to both feelings when she spoke.

“See you’ve been pretty busy, Kay”

She couldn’t help but to arch her brow at the angel, even when a smile drew on her lips while she nodded to the broken wing.

“You too. Wouldn’t kill you to ask for help, you know”

A neutral smile was all she got for answer, before the woman folded her wings on her back with a practiced gesture and stood at her full height, stalking down the low steps with elegance and pride, using werewolf body language to mark her place as one of the higher ups in the pack – and even go through the trouble to fold her injured wing in a way that hid it’s weakness. She was proving to be a worthy – and more than sensible – second by accepting her decision and passing right to the part when she established herself rather than questioning her alpha’s choice.

Her voice was soft and relaxed and her eyes fixed on the males even though the words were directed towards her.

“Perhaps not, but better safe than sorry. Many could take advantage of an angel who can’t fly” She stopped in front of James, and her eyes shone brighter for a second. “He is not a wolf”

Karen sighed and got closer to her friend, standing at her side with great care of not stepping on the part of the injured wing that dragged on the ground.

“He’s not, but needs help regarding his inner-beast like the rest. I plan to induct them into the pack and then have a long talk about what they want and how can we handle things. As we are, the only more or less official is Ryan yet”

The alpha was turning to signal the black wolf to step forward when her ears picked James’ fast breathing. He was almost hyperventilating and his pupils were a mere point in a sea of ice. She signaled the wolves to step back away from him when he lunged.

She felt Dana’s intent through the pack-bond to use her sane wing as a shield and aborted her plans, winning a pretty impressive growl from the angel, with a mere thought before putting all of her attention on the battle at hand. She could use her natural dominance to try and make him submit, but she trusted her combat abilities would suffice.

The woman stopped his powerful right swing with her left arm, and quickly obeyed her instinct of duck his fast approaching left fist. The hair of her neck raised in sudden alert when one of his knees shot forward and she only managed to avoid it because of muscle memory and raw instinct. Her own leg shot upwards and extended, connecting with his gut and trying to make him back away only to find that he was as movable as a concrete wall.

She growled, her eyes turning amber and her wolf restless just beneath the skin, whispering how easy it would be for them to overpower this man if she just _flowed_ … Her infinitesimal distraction was interrupted by the smell of oil and the sound of a blade cutting the air. Karen jumped backwards and away from the large knife James suddenly held in his left hand _and just where in the damn hell had he hid it?!_ Another growl and the feeling of her hands shifting enough to allow her large claws to grow and it was _her_ time to lung at him now.

But _damn!_ He was really, _really_ fast for a cursed one. Her claws caught the heavy cloth of his shirt but no flesh under and as she tugged to free her hand it ripped. Karen dodged his left swing and right stab before latching to that arm and press his wrist, trying to get him to drop his blade, sacrificing defense and maneuverability for her strategy.

She was surely as hell not counting on the crushing force of his blow to her ribcage nor the fury and swiftness with which he adapted to the situation. The air left her lungs and her control slipped for a second and that was enough.

Her fangs were the first to change to allow her to bite before the rest of her body followed swiftly, leaving her as a hundred kilos wolf with her legs still firmly planted on the ground and her forepaws around the arm she was trying hard not chew. Her opponent was stunned for a second and that was enough for her to shift her weight enough to break his balance before forcing another change and using a human leg to throw him to the ground.

James recovered before she could have him safely pinned under her, and Karen went back to her wolf form to shake him off before trying the same strategy with the perks of an animal form. Instead, she found him grabbing her head in a strong grip with his left, unyielding arm and hitting her right in the ear. A yelp left her muzzle, followed by a growl before turning to bite at his arm and finding her fangs stopped in their intent by metal. Confusion dawned in her mind but she shoved it aside, as well as her body when she saw another knife, this one smaller than the other, coming at her.

Shifting again to stand in two feet she looked at him warily with the eyes of the wolf, meeting the cold eyes of his own beast. She thought she could overpower him, take away his blades and getting him out cold, but not without injure both him and herself. She could felt Dana at the back of her mind, pushing her power and abilities towards her while holding both wolves away from the fight – Ryan mostly, as Mance didn’t seem to care much for the fight nor the result. Karen didn’t had the chance to keep making observations and perhaps change her approach to the battle because James jumped at her again.

Frustration was more prominent than anger now. He was far too well trained for her to have it easy, she thought ducking again his blade before jumping and kicking it out of his hand. His metal hand grabbed her feet and she was forced to shift a few times in fast succession to get out of his grip. Her eyes started to hurt for the changes of pressure, she had never been forced to this amount of changes in such a short amount of time and it was quickly exhausting both, her energy and self-control.

He jumped her again, his left arm forward and she used her legs to trap it before twisting her body between his legs and use her arms with her still clawed hands to trap his right arm and one of his legs. The both crashed to the ground and James tried to get leverage to get free from her grip, but she had the strength to keep him in that position a long time. He seemed to realize that, and instead grabbed for one of her legs with his metal arm and _pressed it_ until they heard a snap. Pain flowed her leg, but she didn’t let her hold slack nor her wolf take over – it would be mostly healed in a few minutes anyway.

He trashed and kicked with his free leg, getting her in the collarbone and the ear once, but after a few minutes of struggle it was obvious that Karen wouldn’t let him go if she didn’t wanted to. He finally surrendered, not in the way that would appease her wolf but she knew that simply his aborted attempts of escape would be the best thing she would get.

The second she disentangled her limbs from around his he stood and got a few meters away from her until a growl from Dana stopped him on his tracks. The angel helped her to her feet and tried to support most of her weight so that her broken and mended leg wouldn’t take a turn to the worse, but she shrugged her off.

Her eyes were still amber when they met with James’ bright blue ones, different from the dull and almost icy color they had held a mere minute ago. This time she didn’t felt guilty for using her command voice.

“You and I will have a serious talk after lunch. Alone”

* * *

James’ world had gone downwards the second he saw the wings on the angel’s back.

He remembered talks held when he had been considered little more than an object, about beings of legend that could be even better assets that he was. Talks about buying this beings in some sort of black market that sold them as slaves, where creatures such as this woman were the main trade.

That, and the almost too stiff and weird way they talked set his alarms off and before he knew it the Soldier had taken over and had advanced to try and take care of the situation.

He had been surprised when the woman parred his punch, and even more when she was able not only to accurately predict the rest of his attacks, but also dodge them efficiently. And she had a strength not to be cast aside. It was evident that she was a being as or perhaps more augmented than himself.

Even when her eyes turned amber and he pulled the knife they were equilibrated, in an almost perfect balance that his instincts told him to take an advantage of for as long as it lasted for she wasn’t fighting at full strength.

The first signal that she was something else – besides her eyes and her vocalizations – came from the long and sharp claws that suddenly grew from her fingers. And his mind shut for a second when she not only resisted one of his direct hits from his left arm, but when he found a wolf dangling from his arm there were a human being had been a mere instant before.

She wasn’t a simple dog: her fur a combination of cinnamon, crème, black and greys he had never seen, her fangs far longer and the strange form of the forepaws. Her eyes were the same amber Karen had held not long ago and behind them was a quick intelligence that was fighting with something he knew far too well: the thrill of the hunt, the song of battle.

Then the image of the wolf dissolved in a sea of greys and maroons for a second before in front of him stood the – very naked – form of the human, whom didn’t hesitate to continue the fight as if nothing had happened. A few seconds after she was back to being a wolf, and his mind was quick to supply a solution to how to handle her.

Her yelp was rewarding, her bite not so much even when it was directed to his left arm. He pulled another of his hidden blades and turned to attack her, just to find her backing away and returning to her other form once again.

She stood observing him a few seconds, distracted and he used that distraction to lung, keeping her on her toes even when she got rid of his blade, forcing her to waste energy in needles changes she wouldn’t do in normal circumstances. He wanted to see her fight with all her might, needed to defeat her when she was at her highest to be sure that he was more than capable to fend off her kind and fulfill his missions if it ever came to that.

And then he made the fatal mistake of _not paying attention to tells he wasn’t used to see in opponents_ : she had shifted her gravity center down a little and her legs structure had changed slightly, so much he later doubted she even did it consciously. When his integrated weapon of a limb shot forward, she sprang up and caught it in a strong grip while using the resulting momentum and a flexibility he could only dream of having to get behind him, and using his own reflexes against him she caught his other hand behind his right leg and _tugged_ until he lost his balance.

He fell and felt her limbs lock against him with a strength he had never felt applied by a live being, not even in his fight with Steve on the Helicarriers a few weeks ago. He tried to diminish her pressure in any way possible just to realize that she wouldn’t let him move more than a fish out of the water. His left hand then turned and latched onto her right leg, grabbing her ankle and hearing the gears in his arm twist and turn as he applied more and more pressure onto the joint until he heard it snap, expecting the pain would make her loosen her grip. She grunted, but her muscles tensed more instead of relaxing and he felt how under his hand _the bone started to knit itself back together_.

Had he been James instead of the Soldier that moment, cold fear would have flooded his veins. But he was not, and thus he still tried to put up a fight as he had been trained to. He felt his hits connect a few times, and tried to combine it with thrashing and every dirty movement his handlers had burned into his conditioning to help him escape this kind of situations. He even would have tried to stop his fighting and hope for her to trust him and let him go only to turn back and kill her had something not snapped back into place and the Soldier nor been overpowered by the spirit of the man he had once been.

A memory of a situation not too dissimilar to this, of him fighting an enemy that wasn’t willing to hurt him badly or kill him even when he kept proving time and time again that that would be the only way for the Soldier to _stop_.

James took back over his mind and stopped the struggling, finding with grim satisfaction that the Soldier strategy would have worked, for little trusting Karen had waited just little under a minute after his ceasefire to slacken her hold and starting to disentangle her limbs from around him. He got up and away from her as soon as he could, fearing that the other side of him, still far too close to the surface for control would take over and carry on with his plan.

A growl stopped him on his tracks. He turned to find the silver eyed angel looking at him with anger in her expression as she helped her friend to her feet, who didn’t seem to care about either her unclothed state not her swollen and reddened ankle and shrugged off her as soon as was able to.

Karen’s gaze was still amber and firm when she locked it with his, and he felt power come from her and bind him to her will when she spoke.

“You and I will have a serious talk after lunch. Alone”

He didn’t like being ordered around, nor the compulsion he felt to follow her, to _obey_ every single one of the damned words that came from her mouth. James felt all of his alarms scream the more he kept his gaze locked with the woman’s, and finally conceded and lowered his eyes.

Guilt assaulted him when he saw her grimace as she turned and walked inside the house, giving a non-verbal sign for the other males to follow her inside, leaving him alone with the winged woman that wasn’t very fond of him. Looking at her again he saw her gaze directed to his now torn shirt and the metal gleaming through it, recognition flashing in her eyes, followed by wariness and anger. She looked at him.

“You pull one of those stunts again against her, _Soldat_ , or bring the multi-headed monster breathing down our necks and I’ll put you down like a rabid dog. Are we clear?”

She _knew_ who he was!

“Are you going to tell them?” was all he could think about.

If she did, they might wish to wash their hands and hand him over to the authorities. He needed to know if he had to be ready to flee or not.

Her head turned to the side in a curious gesture, her eyes were hard and her expression cold while she thought.

“I won’t as long as you are not a risk for us and tell Karen yourself who you are. We will have to make some plans on damage control on _both_ fronts if it comes to light we have you as one of our own”

She signaled him to enter but had her whole body tensed, still deep in thought about something. He just felt relieved that despite her initial assessment and reserve, was willing to take risks because of him.

“How do you know I’m the Soldier?”

He asked, unable to keep his curiosity to himself. And because she might represent a security risk, of course. Her eyes held bitter amusement and her uninjured wing flapped at her back.

“You stole a kill from me seventeen years ago”

Well, that explained it for the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved writing this chapter! It's been a while since I wrote something beyond the limits of some ambush heavily planned or heavy intimidation scenes, so this was tons of fun to do.  
> The last part between Dana and James came really out of nowhere, I had not planned ending the chapter this way nor that she knew her from the past but it is somewhat common for my creations to go against my plans.  
> I hope you enjoyed it and be as anxious for the next as I am!  
> Disclaimer: The Avengers, Bucky and the rest are propierty of Marvel and I'm just playing with them; the OCs, the Subworld and the plot however, are entirely a fruit of my beautifully deranged mind.


	7. Rituals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James, Mance and Ryan are inducted into the Pack.

After being ushered to a room by the angel, James couldn’t help but think that he had gone from the frying pan straight into the fire. This people might not be HYDRA – might not have anything to do with his own world, but the fact that his handlers had known about this people was signal enough that he was not safe here. Yet…

_Yet._

He felt weird near Karen; closer and at the same time father from the man he used to be. He deeply despised the way he felt compelled to obey her sometimes yet loved the way she just felt _safe_ to be close by…. Most of the times anyway, at least now he had the security that were he to go berserker on them she would be more than able to stop him from harming anyone.

Barnes felt inside him that this was a place where he could stay and heal, find out who he was besides the Soldier, remember the person he used to be. He couldn’t understand how the wolf-lady could be so comprehensive and tolerant knowing so little about him, but that saved him from digging his own pit of lies.

Where not for the angel who knew who he was everything would have been perfect.

He couldn’t remember ever crossing paths with one of her own, not that he could remember much of anything but he was certain that his handlers would have implanted response protocols for people out of the norm like Karen and she if there was even a single chance for him to meet them. As it was he was utterly defenseless in his ignorance of what they could and couldn’t do. Even after his fight with the woman he _knew_ that there was most to her than what he had seen.

James let his mind wander to what he would tell her in their approaching chat while taking a shower, more comfortable yet wary that now there would be no need for him to hide his arm. He could tell her the truth – what he, in his limited knowledge, considered to be it – but he also knew he shouldn't bet all on one horse, and that if he lied to them now he would forever lose their trust.

For a moment he felt a pang of longing for the man he had almost beaten to dead just short of two weeks ago. He had found that while facts and clear memories were hard to come by, feelings were another matter entirely. A few days after the Triskelion he felt so much guilt in him for what he’d done than he even considered giving himself up to the authorities – of course, the idea was as short lived as the burst of emotions were, but he had the gut feeling that being closer to the wolves and the angel would help him sort at least this part of his problems.

He was surprised shortly after to find clean – new – clothes of his size in the closet of the room he had been assigned to. A sparse note told him that everything in the room now was his and to use it as he pleased. Unused to having a choice about what to wear he wasted a few precious minutes watching the rows of shirts, t-shirts and different kind of pants and boots that awaited him, choosing finally to go as he was before: a simple t-shirt – though this time with short sleeves –; cargo pants and his own, already used and ready for action combat boots. He threw a hoodie in for good measure, still not trusting enough as to go with his arm bare, but let the gloves out of the picture.

While he was in the shower someone had collected the knives from outside and let them on the comfy-looking bed in one corner of the room, another note this time in snarky tone telling him to watch out whom he threatened with those knives – for what he supposed it was the angel the one behind those notes and that perhaps he had done something with them to her in the past. He got those blades back to where they belonged on his person and went out of his room.

Soft music and chat could be heard from the floor below, along with canine grumbling and someone moving along in his floor. The whole house gave an open-earthy-homey feeling from what he’d seen so far, with every room and piece of furniture radiating comfort and warmth from its materials to its colors. The running tension he could feel in the air because of his presence and previous attack was dimmed thanks to the feel of the place, which he rationalized quickly was in part the objective of building up this sort of atmosphere. The other was the relaxation that turned is naturally tensed frame into a somewhat less tense state.

He went down and followed both the voices and the music to find the angel and Ryan both sitting in the kitchen sharing a cup of tea. A memory shot at the front of his mind for a moment, of a young man of easy ways picking on another of English accent about his morning drink of choice while mortar fire drowned every sound in the background.

A hand on his flesh arm brought him back to the present, and came back to find his left wrist held tightly on Karen’s grip, whom was looking at him with the golden eyes of the wolf. All fight died in him at the sight of his raised arm, and she let him free as soon as she felt his muscles – did metal bands counted as muscles anyway? – loosen, and then to his surprise, proceeded to apologize.

“Sorry if I startled you, just thought that was better than to leave you stewing in whatever the hell you were lost in”

He looked around to where the others were now looking with distinct emotions of their faces at his own bafflement. And then he surprised himself with a comment he couldn’t, for the love of God guess where it came from.

“She’s mad isn’t she?” he turned and felt his weight shift into a whole different posture along with his left eyebrow shooting up while he regarded the woman. “I attacked you back there, and then you come and apologize for _startling me_?! Think you’re a little bad in the head department doll”

Surprisingly her golden gaze melted back into her warm brown and after a tense second Ryan laughed, followed closely by the angel whom apparently couldn’t go without adding her five cents.

“I think he just called you nuts Kay, or need some help with the fancy wording?”

A playful growl left the woman’s lips before she went past him to tug softly on the angel’s hair on a soft physical reprimand. It didn’t escape his observation how despite the evident trust between the women the winged one had subtly shifted both of her wings out of Karen’s reach.

“You don’t have to bring that up every time I spend more than two seconds thinking of a witty remark”

A dopey smile from the smaller woman and seemingly everything was forgotten and forgiven.

“It’s just too fun to do so. Besides, what’s an alpha without someone to remind them that they are humans too?”

“Yet you’re not”

“That’s beside the point”

“Bat”

“Dog, and I have feathers mind you”

Another flash of a memory ran through his mind, different words but the feeling in their banter was the same. This time it was a fleeting as a blink, but powerful enough to direct his mind back to the man almost two weeks ago he had…

“Well, I think that now that we are all here we can use this time to get to know ourselves better and talk about inducting the new members–“

“Which is to say _everyone_ in this room but the alpha and my beautiful non-double-personality-disordered self”

“– into the pack. Thanks for your input Dana”

“You’re welcome, my Liege” completed the angel with an elaborated reverence.

The white wolf standing next to him at the door snorted loudly at a joke only he and the women in the room seemed to be in and James just gave up on understanding – at least for the moment– what was going on.

With a soft gesture that still managed to carry command, Karen invited them all to sit on the round kitchen table. Dana stood in a military-like pose behind her alpha’s chair, her face blank and her eyes suddenly distant while Ryan sat and the wolf lied down at the other side. James himself preferring to stand with his back supported by the threshold and the whole room in his line of sight. The obvious leader of the conversation took a second to look at all of them in the eye before speaking.

She presented herself again with formal words, told them all the name of the pack – Lightblaze apparently, he wouldn’t be printing that in any presentation card anytime soon – and walked them through what it meant to be a member of one. While she did so he saw clearly how she constantly wringed her hands in a nervous gesture that betrayed her serene façade, but with one look at her eyes stopped him from thinking she was somehow afraid, on the contrary, it was _excitement_ what made her fidgety. He imagined her giant wolf form and almost smirked at the thought of her tail thumping on the ground like a common dog.

Suddenly Dana’s nick for her had way more sense.

It made _him_ nervous however the fact that she never talked clearly about what entailed being inducted into the werewolf pack, beside the fact that she was going to do it tonight.

Their talk was interrupted by lunchtime and her once-again-veiled order of going through the day familiarizing with what would be their home and thinking about what they knew about pack-mechanics. She also said to go to her or Dana if they had any questions and thinking what they would like to do – to _be_ – once they became one of theirs.

That last part was mind-blowing: she offered anyone within her pack a new human identity if so they wished to ward off their remaining families if they had them and give them a chance at a new beginning. He saw the way her eyes flickered when she mentioned families and remembered the talk about her brother the night before, was that what she had done?

He couldn’t deny that the gift of being able to walk down the streets being anyone but the infamous Winter Solder sounded good, but he wasn’t so sure if bringing more names into the mix was a good move with his mind shattered as it was.

He needed more time to think about that, about the possibilities and about what it meant to get fully inside of this world he was going into, and he was afraid ten hours wouldn’t do the deal.

* * *

When the hour finally came, James was not put at ease by the serious expressions the women wore.

He had heard them a few times going about the house, discussing something about a Council and an information leak. Dana didn’t seemed to understand what was going on exactly but the urgency in Karen’s voice had managed to get the point through and so the angel had been the only one available to answer questions at the end of the day. He still didn't know how to feel about the fact that the sudden emergency had pushed their talk to an undefined time in the future.

James had gone to her a few hours ago, finding her going through some text with a pen in hand and pointing things here and there. She had been diligent if wary in answering his questions but still going into what his mind read as a mission with half the information missing or uncertain – Dana had been direct telling them that her experiences with wolf magic might differ greatly because of her species – was not something he was used to do, from that he could be certain.

Yet here they were, an array of very different people waiting for their future alpha to get down and take them outside – the angel had told them that things were better with this kind of magic if done not only in exteriors, but in a place where the pack already had a claim. He wasn’t so sure about magic and that sort of things, but then again he himself was an impossibility walking, so perhaps it was not his place to judge.

When Karen finally got to them she had the same worried expression she still kept, and he was pretty sure this stress had more to do with whatever she had spent her afternoon doing than with them. In fact her eyes softened a little every time she looked at them all together, a soft wolf-golden tint taking in the edges of her irises.

“Better take your time to shift now Ryan: you’ll be forced to by the magic of the place and I’d rather you keep your wits about it” she said using one of her veiled commands once again.

The man looked at her confused.

“Will you change too, then?”

“No. As an alpha I cannot allow pack magic to control me, otherwise that would mean that wolves lower in the hierarchy could manipulate me and I’d have to be deposed”

Dana immediately spoke with a dry voice that reminded him clearly of her threat to him.

“Which is not going to happen as long as you’re linked to me”

Karen smiled sadly and, after subtly signaling the other still human wolf to go to an annex room with just her gaze, walked ahead once again to comfort her friend. This time there was not even a playful violence in the alpha’s gesture – she was simply patting the angel’s shoulder – yet Dana once again pulled her wings farther apart with a subtle gesture.

And Karen, whom was not stupid from what he’d gathered, either didn’t noticed or didn’t cared.

It took fifteen minutes for Ryan to come back in the form of a giant black wolf, bigger than Karen and Mance were and far more threatening with his canine scowl. He crossed eyes with the golden gaze of a man he thought he could befriend anytime in the future, just to see him grow more and more tense the longer he kept looking. A sharp yip that human vocal chords should have been unable to produce coming from the alpha’s throat was enough to stop the staring contest, and soon enough they were all following her out of the house and into the darkness.

It seemed that this woman only kept some lights in the exterior for appearances sake, for beyond what was considered necessary for a house to have there was only clear darkness. The three wolves and the angel didn’t seem to have any trouble seeing in the darkness, so he just limited himself to follow them through the trees, stumbling here and there when the foliage hid the already scarce light of the moon and the stars.

James knew they were in place when he hear his fellow males growl softly, along with the bristling of Dana’s feathers. He himself felt all of sudden the artificial wish to run away from there and hide from the predators that owned this place, and had also to deal with the Soldier that suddenly perceived some form of threat and wanted out to do his thing.

When he managed to get himself under control he found out that a circle of stones that surrounded the clearing they were in as well as the tall trees, had begun to cast a soft silvery glow similar to moonlight. Karen eyes were casting their own light trapped in between her two colors, while Dana’s shone a sharp and bright silver he had never seen and that unnerved some very deep and instinctual part of his being.

Ryan, Mance and himself stood at one side of the clearing while the angel prowled to the other without tearing her gaze from them, her wings a little bit raised as if to make her seem bigger, while the alpha just walked ahead enough to enter a second circle of stones that also started to shine the second the stepped fully inside.

Then she pulled a sharp looking dagger dangling from her neck and unsheathed it.

He felt himself tense when he saw the naked blade and had to fight now not only with the Soldier to keep him down, but with his own mind that helped by whatever spell there was in this piece of land was screaming at him to leave this madness and just _run!_ The wolves at his sides tensed as well, and Mance let go of a deep growl the woman ahead paid no mind, but that the angel behind her answered with a feral growl from her own.

Karen’s clear voice broke through their aggression, starting to cast a spell of her own with ritualistic words.

“Tonight we meet under the Moon that guides and rules over us to be joined in Her Gift to us all, Her children. A wolf without a Pack, a bond that is unique to out kind, is half a wolf. We are here on this night to give and to take: as Alpha of the Lightblaze Pack, I swear to Moon and Kin, that I will protect with my life all those who decide to join this night, as well as those already under my command. As Alpha all I ask from my people is respect and loyalty. Most of you are here not by choice, but out of obligation; yet I pledge myself to the Pack and its people, as you’ll pledge yourselves for we all wolves are equal in the eyes of the Moon.” She took her time to look at them with serious expression before lifting her left shirt sleeve and holding the dagger tightly in her other hand.

James could feel some sort of energy starting to fill his limbs, the plates of his arm twisting and turning. His mind was clear in what she was going to do next but he found himself enraptured by the way she was in a trance-like state, charmed by her gaze and her words that spoke of some of the things he, even incomplete like this, yearned.

 _Family. Loyalty._ A place to _belong_ without being judged for things he couldn’t change.

Finally her eyes set in Ryan, and her voice was softer when she spoke again.

“Ryan Vance, step into the circle”

The black wolf walked with careful but sure steps until he was with her inside the circle of rocks that shone brighter for a second as he passed. Karen slowly put the blade to her arm and made a large cut, from just down the elbow to her wrist. The dagger shone in her hand while her blood spilled and the wind carried to his nose the smell of burned flesh. Mance besides him whined softly and Dana sneered in sympathy from the other side. When enough blood pooled in her hand, she downed at the right height for Ryan to be able to reach for it without stretching.

“I speak to the spirits of the wolf and the human, for should you choose to drink the Alpha’s blood, both will be tied to her until death takes you away or you decide to part ways. You have shared your moon with me, ran with me. You have lived under my roof and shared my meals. It is time now to decide if you want to be fully mine or none at all”

He wasn’t sure he liked the possessiveness not only in her words, but also in her tone. Barnes was sure most of the speech was ritualistic but still there was an eerie similarity to fanatism that reminded him a little – once again – of HYDRA. The fact that there was the same determination and confidence in Ryan when he downed his muzzle and licked her hand clean as there had been in his handlers when they had been doing ‘the right thing’ wasn’t really calming either.

The wolf eyes, before a dull amber started to shine like gold and his whole being seemed to tremble before his tail started swinging and his ears perked up.

“You are now one of us, Ryan. Welcome to the Lightblaze Pack”

Without obvious prompting he walked out of the circle on the other side and went next to Dana, whom caressed his head and scratched behind one of his ears as one would a common dog before putting all of her attention back in their alpha.

“Mance Ivanov, step into the circle”

There where Ryan’s call had been a soft invitation there was an obvious command in this one, one the white wolf answered with reluctance, with his tail involuntarily going between his legs. She repeated the number with the dagger to make the blood flow again and when she spoke this time was a coldness to her voice that shook him to the bones.

“I speak to the spirits of the wolf and the human, though you have no say in deciding to drink my blood or not. You have been deemed dangerous by your former Alpha, a threat not to any wolf nor human personally, but to all of our world as a whole. Yet you ate with me and slept at my feet, you will be one of mine as much as any other and were circumstances different I would make this offering different. Step ahead then and take the bond”

Her eyes shone fully golden for a second while issuing the command, and Mance could do nothing but to obey, drinking her blood. There was the same change in the eyes as with Ryan, but he didn’t tremble nor swung his tail.

“You are now one of us, Mance. Welcome to the Lightblaze Pack”

A soft sneer could be seen in the wolf’s lips while he stepped out of the circle and to the other side of the clearing, giving the other wolf and angel a wide berth.

Then he heard his – supposed – name.

“James Barnes, step into the circle”

Her eyes were warm again and she had toned the threat down once again to a level that, even keeping him wary, didn’t step on his triggers. Even when he wasn’t so sure really if he wanted to drink blood nor join this weird thing, some other part of him wanted to. Plus there weren’t many places where he would be taken in with open arms and be protected. So he stepped ahead with a confidence he wasn’t really feeling until he was inside the stone circle. Another cut and then, another speech.

“I speak at the product of your curse and your human mind, for should you chose to drink the Alpha’s blood, both will be tied until death takes you away, you choose to part ways or to find a way to turn fully human again. You have fought with me, against me. You have shared my meals and my roof. It is time now to decide if you want with us to share your time or nothing at all”

He realized looking at her eyes that he could see some of the things she left unsaid, and he guessed there were many. Taking courage from deep within him, he took her hand with his own and took it to his lips to taste the blood.

For a second all he could feel was the awful metallic smell and taste of the blood. The next second, he could _feel_ them: their general moods on the forefront of their minds that appeared like a kaleidoscope of color and sound close to his own, now encased and protected by something stronger than steel. His whole body felt a surge of energy coming from within, and he felt his eyes sting for a second while pure peace extended through his limbs, even his metal arm that now felt lighter. Karen’s eyes held pride and wild wolfish joy in front of him.

“You are now one of us James. Welcome to the Lightblaze Pack”

And not a single second after the last syllable left her mouth, she threw her head back violently and howled.

It was a pure wolfish note with not a single trace of human on it, a clear unwavering note that soon played in harmony with Dana and Ryan’s own howls. He saw Mance trying to resist but his wolf side wouldn’t allow it and so he joined. Something inside him felt compelled to do so too, and he could feel the encouragement and joy coming from his recent bond.

And so he also threw his head back and, to his utter surprise, the howl came as natural as taking a breath.

Warmth flooded his chest and his lips curved in a smile around his voice. A flash of a memory came to his mind, an old group he had belonged, and he almost broke into laughter then and there.

Who would have thought than a _Howling Commando_ would end actually howling?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for last week, I fell ill and was unable to do anything but sleep and sneeze for a few days.  
> So, we finally have what is to be our main cast together under a banner. I always expected to have problems narrating from Bucky's perspective, but after trying to write some part of this chapter from Karen's three times and failing horribly I found out that werewolves sometimes are not the most reliable narrators. Next chapter is coming up nicely though, and I can't wait to get to what's next.  
> The ritual was as hard to write as the build-up to it, for days I couldn't come up with anything remotely original for it and was going to 'borrow' the method they use in Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompsom saga, but I am proud of my creation. Even the fact of writing it from Bucky's perspective plays in my favor, because at the moment I was as clueless as to what was happening as he was.  
> Thanks to the new bookmarks and kudos! And to all those of you that take time to read this little story. I hope you liked this chapter.  
> Disclaimer: The Avengers, Bucky and the rest are propierty of Marvel and I'm just playing with them; the OCs, the Subworld and the plot however, are entirely a fruit of my beautifully deranged mind.


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